2008-10-31

Well, it's back. Instead of sending it to the mothership in Bellevue, Wash, as I did when lightning bit it, I sent it to the ICOM Service Center Michigan. Matt, the tech there (I think he's the proprietor) couldn't have been nicer or more helpful. As they say on eBay, "would do business again!!!!!"

This all started a couple of Wednesday nights ago as I was getting ready for our local 10 m net. Pushed the tune button and got ... nada. Uh, oh. Fiddled a bit more: nada. Called one of the regulars who lives about a mile away. He could hear me, but could tell something was wrong with the transmitter.

Dang.

Even before I bought the IC-746Pro ($1050 on eBay in 2004, with the PS, which I sold for about $125!), I knew of the dreaded IC746Pro Sudden Death Syndrome. Full details at the link, but suffice it to say, there is an issue with IC-151, "a broadband medium power amplifier IC", and it occasionally pops.

Some folks have hit this within months of buying their radios, so I figure that nearly 4 1/2 years of trouble-free operation is pretty good. As a result, I'm not sore at Icom the way some are.

So, off to Michigan it went.

Talked to the tech after he'd had it a few days and found that repairs to IC-151 were covered under an "extended warranty" and that they'd also do modifications to "increase the transmitter's reliability".

Cool!

I figured that while the tech had the patient open, I'd see about getting the CR-338 high-stability crystal oscillator installed as well. It's only money, right?

The crystal oven gives the radio a stability of 0.5 ppm versus the stock radio's "< +/-7 ppm" for the first hour and after that, +/-1 ppm. At 3.6 MHz, that's 25 Hz, but at 144 MHz that's over 1 kHz of drift. And I like 2 m SSB DXing. So the tech put one in.

When I talked to him again a few days later and guess what? It wasn't the usual IC-151 issue, but failed transistors in the final amplifier stages. Neither of us had an explanation.

Nonetheless, he applied all the factory modifications to improve reliability (see the link above, many are related to ESD which some hams dispute as the reason for the failures) and had replaced the finals.

So, now it's back in the radio room. Listened to some DX station on 20 m this morning(I think it was RL6-something), but didn't have time to try to bust the pile-up. Tonight. :-)

Not for contests, of course, but for everything else. Well, not 2m FM contacts, for the most part, and certainly not those 2m FM contacts made while portable. But everything else. Contests are logged, first in CT (a backup copy from someone else), and since 2004, N1MM Logger.

The DXLab Suite lets me track things like DXCC progress, WAS, and VUCC. But to think of it as a logger that track awards would be a gross miscarriage of justice. There are 7 or 8 different modules in the suite, all of which are independent programs, but all of which function together. It's pretty cool.

Examples of what it does:

Logs contacts

Tracks award progress and creates submissions

Collects DX spots from net-based or packet clusters and announces them by voice

Tracks solar reports from WWV and predicts propagation

Displays a map of the world and plots logged contacts or DX spots ... or the country you are working

Digital interface that will do at least PSK31 (and others - not one I use)

Controls your radio via CAT or C-IV

Generates and prints QSL labels, envelope labels, or actual QSL cards

Discovers QSL routes and managers and enters them in the log

I probably need to do a demo of this program for the local club. It really is a DXLab Suite.

Did I mention that AA6YQ distributes it free? You still have to pay Bill Gates to run it, but otherwise, nothing.

As for always keeping a paper log ... I kept one of stations heard on the AM broadcast band when I was a kid and later, of stations I'd talked to on CB.

2008-10-26

Next contest I plan to play in is the ARRL November Sweepstakes. The CW part is next weekend, and then 'phone is two weeks later. I don't see me doing the CW weekend, but you never know (the only time I did CW Sweeps was in 1994!).

Unlike CQ WW, SS is only a 30-hour contest and further, stations can only operate 24 of those 30 hours. CQ WW is 48 hours. If you want a high score, you have to "stay in the chair". I'm not so good at that, especially if I'm not making a lot of QSOs (i.e. propagation isn't favorable). RTTY 'tests are better as my station seems to do better (on all bands) with that mode versus 'phone.

My goal this year, as it is every year, is to get a Clean Sweep by working all 80 ARRL/RAC sections. Haven't done that from home yet but am extra motivated this year since this year the League is giving away Clean Sweep brooms ...

2008-10-25

Well, the high bands are pretty well gone (not that 10 was open). On 40, most stations work split, with the European stations down well below 7100 and the US stations above 7125. Its not hard to work split, but it's generally hard, for me at least, to make Qs on 40.

Below that, on 75/80, it's a little better, as the bands in the different ITU regions line up, so not as much, or no, split. Not getting out here, either.

Hear an EA8 calling, but he doesn't hear me. Too bad - that would give me all continents even though I've only made 18 QSOs!

I'll write it up another time, but I blew up my IC746Pro the other week. It won't be back until next week and CQ WW SSB is now. Thanks to an anonymous benefactor, I'm using a radio that's better than the IC725 that we also have ...

Unfortunately, the borrowed radio, while including DSP filtering, has no auto tuner. Apparently, I miss the 746's AT. A lot. I have an MFJ Versa Tuner II, but trying to get the trap dipole tuned up is much harder than I remember. The other odd thing is that the tuner's SWR meter reads differently than the one in the borrowed radio. I don't know if the tuner is "too low" or the radio is "too high", but if the radio thinks it's more than 1.7 or 2.0:1, it backs off the power. Oh, and I only have the hand mic and don't have the adapters to use my Heil BM-10 headset. I miss that, too!

So, not having fun. Four countries in the log so far (can't work Ks for points other than Zone mults).